The Significance of Value 10 Cards in Blackjack
August 26th, 2010 | Published in Gambling Games
There are 16 cards in a standard 52-card deck including tens, jacks, queens and kings. As a result, any player has a 31 percent chance of being dealt one of these cards. On the other hand, all other cards only have less than an 8 percent chance of being dealt. Therefore, this emphasizes the significance of hand value 10 in the game of Blackjack.
Due to this high chance of receiving one of these 16 cards, a strategy can be formulated. The following simple strategy is not as good as analyzing and utilizing data from computer simulations to formulate strategies. However, this helps the player understand the significance of value 10 cards in Blackjack and can assist with creating a solid strategy for when the value 10 card is not present.
There are only two options for this simple strategy. These include:
- Stay
- Hit
All other situations can be added later to create a much more complicated strategy but we will focus on the simple approach for the time being. This strategy is based on the postulation that the next card distributed to either the player or dealer will be of 10 value. Since almost one-third of all cards hold a value of 10 in the game of Blackjack, this is a reasonable hypothesis. If your total hand value equals 11 or less, then you must hit as exceeding 21 is impossible, even with a 10.
If your hand value from the first two cards equals 12 or more, the best action to take is stay. Since 31 percent of all cards are valued at 10, it is likely you may bust. However, this is based on the dealer’s face-up card. If between 2 and 6, it is likely they will have to draw another card. Chances are the hand is a 12 or 16 which means the dealer must draw. If the card is a 10, the dealer will bust and you win.
If the dealer’s card is between 7 and 11, with a 10 face-down they could have 17 to 21. Therefore, it is pointless to stay on a 12 to 16. It is best to take the chance and hit for one additional card. If the hand is 17 or higher, it is competitive and best to stay.
For committed Blackjack players, using this strategy can be an improvement in edge for the player by up to 1 percent. This may seem little, but in the long-run it is quite a significant advantage.